CN PROF.

DEVANSHI DAVE

UNIT – 2

Q.1 Discriminate fully qualified domain name from partially qualified domain name.

[Summer-2021(4 marks) Winter-2020(4 marks)]

Fully-Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs)

Technically, if a top-level domain “A” contains a subdomain “B” that in turn contains subdomain “C”, the
full domain name for “C” is “C.B.A.”. This is called the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) for the node.
Here, the word “qualified” is synonymous with “specified”. The domain name “C.B.A.” is fullyqualified
because it gives the full location of the specific domain that bears its name within the whole DNS name
space.

Fully-qualified domain names are also sometimes called absolute domain names. This term reflects the
fact that one can refer unambiguously to the name of any device using its FQDN from any other portion
of the name space. Using the FQDN always instructs the person or software interpreting the name to
start at the root and then follow the sequence of domain labels from right to left, going top to bottom
within the tree.

Partially-Qualified Domain Names (PQDNs)

There are also some situations in which we may refer to a device using an incomplete name specification.
This is called a partially-qualified domain name (PQDN), which means that the name only partially
specifies the location of the device. By definition, a PQDN is ambiguous, because it doesn't give the full
path to the domain. Thus, one can only use a PQDN within the context of a particular parent domain,
whose absolute domain name is known. We can then find the FQDN of a partially-specified domain name
by appending the partial name to the absolute name of the parent domain. For example, if we have the
PQDN “Z” within the context of the FQDN “Y.X.”, we know the FQDN for “Z” is “Z.Y.X.”

Why bother with this? The answer is convenience. An administrator for a domain can use relative names
as a short-hand to refer to devices or subdomains without having to repeat the entire full name. For
example, suppose you are in charge of the computer science department at the University of Widgetopia.
The domain name for the department as a whole is “cs.widgetopia.edu.” and the individual hosts you
manage are named after fruit.

In the DNS files you maintain you could refer to each device by its FQDN every time; for example,
“apple.cs.widgetopia.edu.”, “banana.cs.widgetopia.edu.” and so on. But it's easier to tell the software “if
you see a name that is not fully qualified, assume it is in the ‘cs.widgetopia.edu’ domain”. Then you can
just call the machines “apple”, “banana”, etc. Whenever the DNS software sees a PQDN such as “kiwi” it
will treat it as “kiwi.cs.widgetopia.edu”.
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Q.2 What is HTTP? Differentiate its persistent and non-persistent types with request-response behavior
of HTTP. [WINTER 2021 4 MARKS]

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol that uses TCP as an underlying
transport and typically runs on port 80. HTTP is a stateless protocol i.e. server maintains no information
about past client requests.

HTTP Connections

1. Non-Persistent

2. Persistent

Before starting with persistent and non-persistent HTTP connection lets know what is RTT.

RTT-> Time for a small packet to travel from client to server and back.

RTT= 2*propagation time

1. For a connection Persistent or Non-persistent it is sure that to initiate TCP connection

one RTT is used.
2. One RTT is used for HTTP request and first few bytes to HTTP response to return. So in

order to know total file transmission time-> total = 2RTT+transmit time

Difference between Persistent & Non-Persistent connection.

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Non-Persistent Connection

1. Without parallel connection

2. With parallel connection

Without parallel connection Non-Persistent

Each objection takes two RTT (assuming no window limit) one for TCP connection and other for HTTP
image/text file.

With parallel connection Non-Persistent

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Persistent connection

1. Non-Pipelined

2. Pipelined
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In Non-pipeline connection we first establish connection which takes two RTT then we send all the
objects images/text files which takes 1 RTT each (TCP for each object is not required).

In Pipelined connection 2RTT for connection establishment and then 1RTT(assuming no window limit) for
all the objects i.e. images/text.

Advantages of persistent connections :

1) Lower CPU and memory usage because there are less number of connections.
2) Allows HTTP pipelining of requests and responses.
3) Reduced network congestion (fewer TCP connections).
4) Reduced latency in subsequent requests (no handshaking).
5) Errors can be reported without the penalty of closing the TCP connection.

Disadvantages of persistent connections :

Resources may be kept occupied even when not needed and may not be available to others.

Most of the modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer use persistent connections.
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Q.3 Give differences between TCP and UDP. [WINTER 2021 3 MARKS]

Description TCP UDP

Full Name Transmission Control Protocol User Datagram Protocol
Connection TCP is a connection-oriented UDP is a connectionless protocol.
protocol.
Function A point to point connection is A point to point connection is not
established between client and established before sending messages.
server before sending a message.
Usage TCP is suited for applications that UDP is suitable for applications that
require high reliability, and need a fast, efficient transmission,
transmission time is relatively less such as games.
critical.
Reliability There is an absolute guarantee that There is no guarantee that the
the data transferred remains intact messages or packets sent would reach
and arrives in the same order in at all.
which it was sent.
Use by other protocols HTTP, HTTPs, FTP, SMTP, Telnet DNS, DHCP, SNMP, RIP, VOIP
The ordering of data TCP rearranges data packets in the UDP has no inherent order as all
packets order specified. packets are independent of each
other.
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Description TCP UDP

Speed of transfer The speed for TCP is slower than UDP is faster because there is no
UDP. error-checking for packets.
Header Size TCP header size is 20 bytes UDP Header size is 8 bytes.
Data Flow Control TCP does Flow Control. UDP does not have an option for flow
control.
Error Checking TCP does error checking UDP does error checking, but no
recovery options.
Acknowledgment Acknowledgment segments No Acknowledgment
Handshake SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK No handshake

Q. 4 Explain the hierarchical DNS system [WINTER 2020 7 MARKS]

The DNS hierarchy is comprised of the following elements:

1) Root Level

2) Top Level Domains

3) Second Level Domains

4) Sub-Domain

5) Host

DNS Root Zone

The DNS root zone is the highest level in the DNS hierarchy tree. The root name server is the name server for the
root zone. It answers the requests for records in the root zone and answers other requests by providing a list of
authoritative name servers for the appropriate TLD (top-level domain). The root nameservers are very important
because they are the first step in resolving a domain name. These are the authoritative nameservers which serve
the DNS root zone. These servers contain the global list of the top-level domains. The root zone contains the
following:

1) Organizational hierarchy such as .com, .net, .org.

2) Geographic hierarchy such as .uk, .fr, .pe.

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The root DNS servers are operated by 12 different organizations.

1) Verisign

2) University of Southern California

3) Cogent

4) University of Maryland

5) NASA AMES Research Center

6) Internet Systems Consortium

7) US Department of Defense

8) US Army Research Lab

9) Netnod

10) RIPE

11) ICANN

12) WIDE

Top Level Domains

The next level in the DNS hierarchy is Top level domains. There are many TLDs available at the moment. As we have
seen the TLDs are classified as two sub categories. They are organizational hierarchy and geographic hierarchy. Let
us see each in detail.

Organizational Hierarchy

Domain Purpose

com Commercial organizations

edu Educational institutions

gov Government institutions

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mil Military groups

net Major network support centers

org Nonprofit organizations and others

int International organizations

Geographic hierarchy

In the geographic hierarchy, each country is assigned with two letter codes. These codes are used to identify
countries.

For example, take the domain name images.google.com

Here, the “.com” is the top-level domain. It is called as tld in short. This is the next component in the DNS hierarchy.
A TLD can have many domains under it. For example, a .com tld can have linux.com, centos.com, ubuntu.com, etc.

Sometimes, there is a second level hierarchy to a tld. They deal with the type of entity intended to register an SLD
under it. For example, for the .uk tld, a college or other academic institution would register under the .ac.uk ccSLD,
while companies would register under .co.uk.

Second Level Domains

The next level in the DNS hierarchy is the Second Level Domains. This is the domain that is directly below the tld.
This is the main part of the domain name. It can vary according to the buyer. There are no limits here as the tlds.
Once the domain is available anyone can purchase it. If the domain is unavailable at the moment, same 2nd level
name with other tlds is the best option.

Sub-domain

The sub-domain is the next level in the DNS hierarchy. The sub-domain can be defined as the domain that is a part
of the main domain. The only domain that is not also a sub-domain is the root domain. Suppose two
domains. one.example.com and two.example.com. Here, both the domains are the sub-domains of the main
domain example.com and the example.com is also a subdomain of the com top level domain.

This is the DNS hierarchy and elements of the DNS hierarchy.

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Q.5 What is POP3 protocol? How the limitations of POP3 protocols are overcome by IMAP? [SUMMER
2021 7 MARKS]

POP3 (Post Office Protocol)

• POP3 is an extremely simple mail access protocol.
• POP3 begins when the user agent of the client opens a TCP connection to the mail server of the
server on port 110.

• With the TCP connection established, POP3 progresses through three phases: authorization,
transaction, and update.
• During the first phase, authorization, the user agent sends a username and a password to
authenticate the user.
• During the second phase, transaction, the user agent retrieves messages; also during this phase,
the user agent can mark messages for deletion, remove deletion marks and obtain mail statistics.
• The third phase, update, occurs after the client has issued the quit command, ending the POP3
session; at this time, the mail server deletes the messages that were marked for deletion.
• POP3 is designed to delete mail on the server as soon as the user has downloaded it.
• However, some implementations allow users or an administrator to specify that mail is saved for
some period of time. POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)

• With POP3 access, once a receiver has downloaded his messages to the local machine, he can
create mail folders and move the downloaded messages into the folders.
• A receiver can then delete messages, move messages across folders, and search for messages
(by sender name or subject).
• But this paradigm—namely, folders and messages in the local machine—poses a problem for
the roaming user, who would prefer to maintain a folder hierarchy on a remote server that can
be accessed from any computer.
• This is not possible with POP3—the POP3 protocol does not provide any means for a user to create
remote folders and assign messages to folders.
• An IMAP server will associate each message with a folder; when a message first arrives at the
server, it is associated with the recipient’s INBOX folder.
• The recipient can then move the message into a new, user-created folder, read the message,
delete the message, and so on.
• The IMAP protocol provides commands to allow users to create folders and move messages
from one folder to another.
• IMAP also provides commands that allow users to search remote folders for messages matching
specific criteria.
• Another important feature of IMAP is that it has commands that permit a user agent to obtain
components of messages. For example, a user agent can obtain just the message header of a
message or just one part of a multipart MIME message.
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• This feature is useful when there is a low-bandwidth connection (for example, a slow-speed
modem link) between the user agent and its mail server.
• With a low bandwidth connection, the user may not want to download all of the messages in its
mailbox, particularly avoiding long messages that might contain, for example, an audio or video
clip.